Historically, our understanding of University Business
Collaborations (UBC) is based on the role of barriers in the
development of cooperation. During the June 2017 University
Industry Innovation Network (UIIN) annual meeting, various
participants discussed strategies and practices to manage and
overcome barriers to support successful UBC. One assumption is that
once barriers are overcome, the road is paved for collaborations.
This assumption by questioning the barrier's significance in
UBC is discussed below.
Are barriers the main influencing factor in the process of
establishment of a UBC? Through the "State of European
University-Business Cooperation" study in 2011, it was
demonstrated that barriers and obstacles do not play a significant
role in UBC. This means that the actors involved would still engage
in university-business activities regardless of the existence of
barriers. The latest results of the UBC study 2016/17 reinforce
these findings. This study
